The No. 12 Denver men’s lacrosse team headed to Salt Lake City over the weekend to kick off their season with out-of-conference opponent Utah on Saturday. DU is coming off of a 12-5 record last season, going 9-1 in conference play but ultimately falling to Loyola Maryland in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Saturday’s game was a defensive battle, resulting in a 14-13 victory to send the Crimson and Gold home on a high note to start this year’s campaign.
DU opened the scoring right out of the gate with a goal from junior attacker JJ Sillstrop (Encinitas, Calif.), feeding off a pass from graduate student midfielder Ted Sullivan (Tucson, Ariz.) just over two minutes into the first quarter. Back-to-back goals 25 seconds apart by Utah gave the Utes a one-point advantage mid-quarter, but a stunning goal from Sillstrop behind the head put the game at a draw. Graduate student midfielder Jack Hannah (Milford, Ohio), returning for his fifth season with the team, put Denver ahead going into the second quarter.
Scoring never seemed to stop in the second quarter, with 9 goals total between the two teams. Utah tallied first, less than a minute into the quarter, but Sullivan gave DU a two-point advantage, their largest lead of the afternoon.
Graduate student midfielder Riley Curtis (Brampton, Ontario) scored two goals following a Utah goal, but two more back-to-back goals from the Utes made it a 6-6 tie game with just under four minutes to go. To close the quarter, sophomore attacker Joshua Carlson (Centennial, Colo.) scored the first goal of his collegiate career to give DU back the lead, and Sillstrop delivered a pass from Curtis to make it 8-6 Denver at the half and give himself a hat trick.
Momentum began to shift in Utah’s favor in the third quarter, the opposition scoring four goals to put the Utes 2 points ahead with 4:42 to go in the quarter. Curtis stopped the run at 40’7” and set up a 4 goal run for DU, Sillstrop capping it off with an unassisted goal to put DU ahead by one going into the final fifteen minutes.
Senior midfielder Alex Simmons (Smithville, Ontario) got the fourth quarter off to a fiery start, scoring behind the back at 9:41. Fourth goals of the day for both Sullivan and Utah’s Jordan Hyde (Bloomsfield Hills, Mich.) made it 14-12 Denver. A final goal from Utah with 1:24 to go would not be enough to stop Denver from going home with the win.
DU will continue their season at home on Saturday, Feb. 12 against Air Force at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium. Denver has gone 23-2 throughout program history against the Falcons.
